Knockout game

"Knockout game" is one of the names given in the United States by news media and others to assaults in which one person (with others acting as accomplices or lookouts) attempt to "knock out", with a single sucker punch, an unsuspecting victim. The assaults have similarities to the happy slapping trend seen in Europe, in which camera phones are used to record assaults. Other names given to assaults of this type include "knockout", "knockout king", "point 'em out, knock 'em out", and "polar-bearing" or "polar-bear hunting" (allegedly called such when the victim is white and the assailants are not).[1][2][3]

Serious injuries and even deaths have been attributed to the knockout game. Some news sources report that there was an escalation of such attacks in late 2013, and, in some cases, the attacker was charged with a hate crime.[1][4][5] Other media analysts, such as Slate, have cast doubt on the reportedly widespread nature of the game and have labeled the trend, although not the attacks themselves, a myth.[6][7][8][9]

In September 1992, Norwegian exchange student Yngve Raustein was killed by three teenagers who—according to Cambridge, Massachusetts, prosecutors—were playing a game called "knockout." Local teens said that the object is to render an unsuspecting target unconscious with a single punch, and, if the assailant does not succeed, his companions will turn on him instead.[10]

In 2005 in the United Kingdom, BBC News reported on the happy slapping incidents, in which the attacks were filmed for the purpose of posting online.[11] The French government responded to this trend by making it illegal to film any acts of violence and post them online, with a spokesperson for then President Nicolas Sarkozy saying that the law was indeed directed at "happy slapping."[12]

Three teens were arrested in Decatur, Illinois, in September 2009, and charged in the killing of a bicyclist, 61, who was stomped to death, and the attempted murder of another man, 46, who was also attacked and stomped. It was claimed that the teens were playing "point 'em out, knock 'em out," where a person is selected and a group of attackers attempts to render the victim unconscious.[13][14]

In June 2009, a 29-year-old man was beaten in a Columbia, Missouri, parking garage by a group of teens who told police that they were playing a game called "knockout king," where they would find an unsuspecting person and attempt to knock him out with a single punch.[15]

In April 2011, Hoang Nguyen, 72, died in St. Louis, Missouri, after he was attacked in what was described by a local CBS station as "part of the so-called knockout game". Nguyen's wife, Yen, 62, was injured. After the trial, the assailant, Elex Murphy, a teenager who was 18 at the time of the assault, was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years.[15][16][17][18]

In July 2012, 62-year-old Delfino Mora was attacked by three teens and killed in West Rogers Park, Chicago. Anthony Malcolm, who recorded the attack on his cell phone and publicized it, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Two other teens were awaiting trial in September 2013. The attack was said to be part of a game called "pick 'em out, knock 'em out."[14][19]

In 2013, a series of these attacks resulted in the deaths of the victims, all with some sort of game as a precipitating factor. Michael Daniels, 51, of Syracuse, New York died a day after being attacked in May 2013, with the "knockout game" later mentioned in regard to his death.[20][21]

Ralph Santiago, a disabled homeless resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, was found dead after being attacked by three boys whose assault was linked to the "knockout" game.[22][23]

In the United States, The New York Times noted "a growing log of reports of such crimes in the Northeast and beyond".[8] A number of news stories in late November 2013 covered incidents in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where a series of attacks took place during October and November of that year.[4][5][25][26][27] As a result, the NYPD responded by stepping up patrols in certain neighborhoods.[28]

On November 24, 2013, in Katy, Texas, an 81-year-old African-American man was attacked and hospitalized. Two weeks later, Conrad Alvin Barrett, 29, was arrested after allegedly showing an off-duty police officer a video he recorded with his cell phone of himself perpetrating the attack and explicitly referencing "knockout". Investigators revealed that there were other videos on his phone in which he used racial epithets and another in which he wondered if he would receive media attention if he were to commit a "knockout game" attack on a black man. This was one of the first cases in which the victim was African-American. Previous instances in the US primarily involved white or Asian victims and African-American assailants. The Justice Department subsequently charged Barrett with a hate crime, the only time the DOJ involved itself in prosecuting these attacks. Barrett's attorney claimed his client suffers from bipolar disorder and was not on medication at the time of the attack.[29][30][31][32][33][34] In October 2015, Barrett was sentenced to 71 months (5 years and 11 months) in federal incarceration. He still faces charges in state court.[35]

In November 2013 a teen, attempting to play the "knockout game", was shot and arrested.[36]

On July 27, 2016 in Milan, Italian police arrested a young Spaniard on vacation in Italy, after he made repeated assaults on passersby, similar to this "game".[37] On that same date, in Greenville, South Carolina a man was attacked while playing Pokemon GO.[38]

In December 2015 a man in New York was reported assaulted by a non-black teen playing the "knockout game". The perpetrator turned himself in two months later.[39][40]

On August 29, 2016 a 30-year-old Guatemalan, Mardoquo Sincal Jochola, was fatally assaulted in Philadelphia and is alleged to have been a victim of the "knockout game".[41]

On July 31, 2017, an unidentified man was caught on camera while knocking out a 24-year-old woman, Yana Rozanova, in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine.[42]

Several attacks on Jewish victims in Brooklyn in 2013 have been called antisemitic hate crimes.[1][2][3][43]ABC Nightline reported that New York City police believed that antisemitism was likely to be a motive in the attacks, as all eight victims were identified as Jewish.[44]

Jewish community leaders in Brooklyn have spoken out on the subject,[26][45] and the Anti-Defamation League regional office issued a public statement on knockout attacks "targeting Jewish individuals in Brooklyn".[46] Amrit Marajh, a 28-year-old suspect in an attack that took place in Brooklyn, was charged with a hate crime as his victim was Jewish.[1][5][47] Marajh has claimed innocence and denied the claims of antisemitism.[48]

On December 3, newly elected African-AmericanDemocratic New York City councilwoman Laurie Cumbo added a letter to her Facebook page saying: "The accomplishments of the Jewish community triggers feelings of resentment, and a sense that Jewish success is not also their success." The Anti-Defamation League said her post was "troubling" and that it evoked "classic anti-Semitic stereotypes."[49] Cumbo later issued an apology for the remarks.[50][51] Cumbo added that the lives of victims and suspects will never be the same and that attackers would be "prosecuted to the full extent of the law".[52] NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly later stated that he was avoiding referring to the attacks as part of any sort of trend to avoid further copycat attacks and has instead been labeling them as hate crimes.[53]

On November 21, 2013[54]RepublicanNew York State assemblymanJim Tedisco put forward legislation called the "Knockout Assault Deterrent Act"[55] to charge juvenile offenders in these type of attacks as adults, and would also punish those who were found recording the attacks.[54][56]New York State SenatorHugh Farley (also a Republican) supports legislation that would make assailants linked to the knockout game liable to harsher sentences, would try juvenile offenders as adults, and would make accomplices criminally responsible.[56][57] Democratic assemblyman John McDonald, while admitting stiffer penalties were warranted claimed Tedisco's bill was unnecessary.[57]

After incidents during late 2013 in Brooklyn in which Jews were victims of knockout attacks, Jewish leaders, councilmembers, and organization representatives spoke against the attacks.[26][52][59]

Leaders from the African-American community also made statements. New York City councilman Charles Barron stated that the root of the problem was a need for jobs to keep young people out of trouble; he also suggested additional funding for community patrols to act as lookouts.[60] Representative Hakeem Jeffries said at a Crown Heights Youth Collective conference that attacks based on race will not be tolerated and that the collective will do everything in its power to see that justice is done.[52] Brooklyn's then-District Attorney-elect Kenneth P. Thompson called out the attacks, saying that "there is no status to be gained" for knocking out an unsuspecting victim and that such violence will not be tolerated. Brooklyn Borough President-elect Eric Adams affirmed Thompson's statement, saying that, if you "play this game, ... you will lose".[52]

The existence of a growing trend of knockout attacks has been questioned; claims about the prevalence of the phenomenon have been called an "urban myth" and a "type of panic" by some political analysts.[8]

A June 2011 investigative report by John Tucker of the Riverfront Times following the death of Hoang Nguyen in 2011 saw many related attacks, all attributed to the "Knockout King" game. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Daniel Isom stated that a year prior the police determined that the knockout game was played by a group of children who went around trying to knock random people unconscious. The police estimated the activity was not widespread and limited to five or nine teens. In Tucker's interviews with local teens, they believed the number to be much higher; one 18-year-old estimated 10-15% of his peers played the game. A St. Louis area barber said that in his youth the phenomenon was not called "Knockout King" but "One Hitter Quitter". Mike Males of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice claimed that the media has been cherry-picking related attacks for sensationalism, asserting that "This knockout-game legend is a fake trend." Police at the time believed such attacks might have been under-reported by immigrant victims in communities where relations with law enforcement had been tense.[65]

An attack from 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was tentatively linked to more recent attacks, although it was never identified as part of any "game".[56] Police in Syracuse, New York, reported that one assailant in a fatal attack admitted to its being "knockout", with a police sergeant noting that the assaults he was investigating were definitely "for a game" rather than being attempted murders or robberies.[8]

On November 23, 2013, The New York Times reported that police officials in New York City were considering their position on the "game" and were wondering if they should advise the public, but had to contend with the uncertain existence of the game.[8] Police in New York City questioned whether they were faced with a trend or a series of isolated incidents.[56] Then-New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly refused to refer to the attacks in Brooklyn as the "knockout game" to avoid possible copycat attacks.[53]

Several assaults associated with the knockout game do not follow any particular pattern; in several instances, a single assailant attempted a one-punch attack while in others multiple assailants participated in a gang attack. The "Knockout King" death of Nguyen in St. Louis was such a gang attack. A purported trend was identified in Lansing, Michigan called "point 'em out, knock 'em out" involved the use of a Taser.[53]

Many officials have outright refused to refer to the assaults as a "game", with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter explicitly stating he did not want to give the idea any credibility while at a press conference after an attack at a Philadelphia pizzeria where the suspects never mentioned the game.[53] In a CNN interview with Don Lemon, Nutter stated he was not sure if the knockout game is real or not, adding he less concerned about the name but saying the incidents are of "great concern" and could spark copycat behavior. Nutter would not answer if the attacks were racially motivated and stated that Philadelphia has no confirmed "game" incidents.[66] Earlier, Philadelphia Police spokeswoman Tanya Little determined a November 11 attack as part of a knockout game.[67]

Jamelle Bouie of The Daily Beast was critical of the game's existence as a trend, comparing its existence to the "wilding" assault allegedly at hand in the Central Park jogger case and the often reported headlight flashing urban legend. While he did not deny that several people were attacked and one had died, he pointed out that the attacks were not really rare, noting the FBI had reported 127,577 unarmed assaults in 2012.[9]

When Singal approached several local news stations, a representative from an NBC affiliate responded saying that the footage had been taken from a shared pool of stock footage that other NBC stations in the area were given, and generally, if the footage is found to be inaccurate there would be a digital note concerning it. The note was absent in the case of the London video for reasons unknown. Singal's investigation led him to believe that people around the country are being told a story that has not been properly researched.[68]

Robin Abcarian for the Los Angeles Times criticized this reporting style by a conservative analyst, saying that blame was shifted onto the federal government. Abcarian noted that Barrett explicitly stated he was seeking a black victim, and postulated that he may have been acting on this "lazy narrative that black teens were randomly attacking white people". She criticized the statement by Rev. Sharpton and the conservative news sources who began supporting him after decades of opposition.[70]

Tommy Christopher, writing for Mediaite, claimed James Rosen's report for Fox News on the attack was misleading, noting claims made by Rosen that it is the first such attack to be charged as a hate crime, when it was the first under federal statute. Christopher cited the arrest of Amrit Marajh in Brooklyn and the investigation of the alleged assault on Taj Patterson, a gay black man who claimed he was attacked by a group of Orthodox Jewish men, as proof of this.[71][72][73]

Abcarian criticized the reporting of this attack as possibly being related to the knockout game trend, as the alleged attackers sought out Patterson because he was gay rather than because he is black. She also brought up a case of a fabrication of a "knockout"-style attack, after the victim and her boyfriend revealed she had lied that she was attacked at random by a stranger and instead he had struck her, noting that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did not report the initial attack as a "knockout game" attack.[74] Abcarian claimed that the 2011 attack by Dajour Washington on James Addlesburger was being used for sensationalism. The video of the assault was shown by Bill O'Reilly, which Addlesburger felt was being exploited and manipulated to fan racial hatred. Washington, who spent nine months in juvenile detention for the attack, appeared on Nightline in 2013 and claimed he had not attacked Addlesburger because he was white but rather because he was the only man present. Washington also claimed that at the time of the attack he had never heard of the "knockout game".[75]

1.
Camera phone
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A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs. Most camera phones also record video, most camera phones are simpler than separate digital cameras. Their usual fixed-focus lenses and smaller sensors limit their performance in poor lighting, lacking a physical shutter, some have a long shutter lag. Photoflash is typically provided by an LED source which illuminates less intensely over a longer exposure time than a bright. Optical zoom and tripod screws are rare and none has a hot shoe for attaching an external flash, some also lack a USB connection or a removable memory card. Most have Bluetooth and WiFi, and can make geotagged photographs, some of the more expensive camera phones have only a few of these technical disadvantages, but with bigger image sensors, their capabilities approach those of low-end point-and-shoot cameras. In the smartphone era, the sales increase of camera phones caused point-and-shoot camera sales to peak about 2010. Most model lines improve their cameras every year or two, most smartphones only have a menu choice to start a camera application program and an on-screen button to activate the shutter. Some also have a camera button, for quickness and convenience. The principal advantages of camera phones are cost and compactness, indeed for a user who carries a mobile phone anyway, smartphones that are camera phones may run mobile applications to add capabilities such as geotagging and image stitching. However, the screen, being a general purpose control, lacks the agility of a separate cameras dedicated buttons. Nearly all camera phones use CMOS image sensors, due to reduced power consumption compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used. Some of camera phones even use more expensive Back Side Illuminated CMOS which uses energy lesser than CMOS, although more expensive than CMOS and CCD. The latest generation of cameras also apply distortion, vignetting. Most camera phones have a digital zoom feature, an external camera can be added, coupled wirelessly to the phone by Wi-Fi. They are compatible with most smartphones, images are usually saved in the JPEG file format, except for some high-end camera phones which have also RAW feature and the Android 5.0 Lollipop has facility of it. Windows Phones can be configured to operate as a camera if the phone is asleep. An external flash can be employed, to improve performance, Phones usually store pictures and video in a directory called /DCIM in the internal memory

2.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world

3.
BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole

4.
Nicolas Sarkozy
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Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement party, during Jacques Chiracs second presidential term he served as Minister of the Interior except between March 2004 and May 2005 when he was minister of Finances. Sarkozy was also mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France and he was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur during François Mitterrands last term. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis and the Arab Spring and he married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. In foreign affairs, Sarkozy promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom, in the 2012 election, the Socialist François Hollande defeated Sarkozy by 3. 2%. After leaving the Presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in September 2014, on 2 July 2014, Sarkozy was charged with corruption by French prosecutors. In 2016, he ran in the Republican presidential primary, and was eliminated in the first round of voting and they were married in the Saint-François-de-Sales church, 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 8 February 1950 and divorced in 1959. During Sarkozys childhood, his father founded his own advertising agency, the family lived in a mansion owned by Sarkozys maternal grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of Paris, according to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today and he also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier and taller classmates. What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood, Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a well regarded public middle and high school in Paris 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. Sarkozy enrolled at the Université Paris X Nanterre, where he graduated with an M. A. in private law and, later, Paris X Nanterre had been the starting place for the May 68 student movement and was still a stronghold of leftist students. Described as a student, Sarkozy soon joined the right-wing student organization. He completed his service as a part-time Air Force cleaner. After graduating from university, Sarkozy entered Sciences Po, where he studied between 1979 and 1981, but failed to graduate due to an insufficient command of the English language. After passing the bar, Sarkozy became a lawyer specializing in business and they had two sons, Pierre, now a hip-hop producer, and Jean now a local politician in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy started his own political career. Sarkozys best man was the prominent right-wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent, Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, after they had been separated for several years. As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz

5.
Decatur, Illinois
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Decatur /dəˈkeɪtər/ is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U. S. state of Illinois. The city was founded in 1829 and is along the Sangamon River, in 2015, the citys estimated population was 73,254. The city is home of private Millikin University and public Richland Community College. s wheel-tractor scrapers, off-highway trucks, Decatur is located at 39°51′6″N 88°56′39″W. Decatur is three hours southwest of Chicago,40 miles due east of Springfield, the state capital, and two hours northeast of St. Louis by car. According to the 2010 census, Decatur has an area of 46.91 square miles, lakes include Lake Decatur, formed in 1923 by the damming of the Sangamon River. As of the census of 2000, there were 81,860 people,34,086 households, the population density was 1,969.7 people per square mile. There were 37,239 housing units at a density of 896.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 77. 59% White,19. 47% African American,0. 17% Native American,0. 66% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 43% from other races, and 1. 65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 19% of the population,32. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 13. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the family size was 2.90. The median age was 37 years, for every 100 females there were 87.9 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 83.9 males, the median income for a household in the city was $33,111, and the median income for a family was $42,379. Males had an income of $36,920 versus $22,359 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,009, about 12. 1% of families and 16. 5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25. 1% of those under age 18 and 9. 0% of those age 65 or over. The citys motto is Decatur, We Like it Here, the old motto was The Pride of the Prairie. The Soybean Capital of the World is the unofficial, but popular motto, Decatur was awarded the All-America City Award in 1960. The citys symbol is the Transfer House, an early-20th-century Victorian structure located originally in the center of town where the mass transit lines met. The Transfer House was moved in 1963 to save it from destruction as increasing automobile traffic flowed through the highway routed through downtown

6.
Columbia, Missouri
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Columbia /kəˈlʌmbiə/ is a city in the U. S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Boone County. Founded in 1818, it is home to the University of Missouri and is the city of the Columbia Metropolitan Area. It is Missouris fourth most-populous city, with a population of 119,108 in 2015. As a midwestern town, the city has a reputation for progressive politics, public art. At the center of Downtown is 8th Street, also known as the Avenue of the Columns, which connects Francis Quadrangle and Jesse Hall to the Boone County Courthouse, originally an agricultural town, the cultivation of the mind is Columbias chief economic concern today. Never a major center of manufacturing, the city depends on healthcare, insurance. Several companies, such as Shelter Insurance, Carfax, and Slackers CDs, cultural institutions include the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Museum of Art and Archaeology, and the annual True/False Film Festival. The Missouri Tigers, the only major college athletic program, play football at Faurot Field. The city is built upon the hills and rolling prairies of Mid-Missouri, near the Missouri River valley. Limestone forms bluffs and glades while rain carves caves and springs which water the Hinkson, Roche Perche, surrounding the city, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Mark Twain National Forest, and Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge all form a greenbelt preserving sensitive and rare environments. The first humans were hunters who entered the area at least twelve thousand years ago. Later, woodland tribes lived in villages along waterways and built mounds in high places, the Osage and Missouria nations were expelled by the exploration of French traders and the rapid settlement of American pioneers. German, Irish, and other European immigrants soon joined, the modern populace is unusually diverse, over eight percent foreign-born. While White and Black remain the largest ethnicities, Asians are now the third-largest group, todays Columbians are remarkably highly educated and culturally midwestern, though traces of their Southern past remain. The city has called the Athens of Missouri for its classic beauty and educational emphasis. The Columbia area was part of the Mississippian culture and home to the Mound Builders. When European explorers arrived, the area was populated by the Osage, in 1678, La Salle claimed all of Missouri for France. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by the area on the Missouri River in early June 1804, in 1806, two sons of Daniel Boone established a salt lick 40 miles northwest of Columbia

7.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area

8.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time

9.
Rogers Park, Chicago
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Rogers Park is located nine miles north of the Cook County Courthouse in downtown Chicago. The neighborhood just to the west, West Ridge, was part of Rogers Park until the 1890s, the Rogers Park area was developed on what once was the convergence of two Native American trails, now known as Rogers Avenue and Ridge Boulevard, predating modern metropolitan Chicago. The Pottawatomi and various other tribes often settled in Rogers Park from season to season. The name of Indian Boundary Park west of Rogers Park reflects this history as does Pottawattomie Park near Clark Street, in 1809, the Karthauser Inn was established as stagecoach stop and tavern. One of the settlers of the area was Phillip Rogers. During the period 1844 to 1850 arriving settlers started farms along a ridge in the portion of Rogers Park. In 1870 Rogers son-in-law, Patrick I, Touhy, sold 100 acres to land speculators, including John Farwell, Luther Greenleaf, Stephen Lunt, Charles Morse, and George Estes, all of whom contributed names to streets in the area. With an additional purchase of 125 acres in 1873 these speculators together with Touhy formed the Rogers Park Building, also in 1873, the Chicago & Northwestern Railway completed a service line through the area and constructed a station at Greenleaf Ave. The population was 200 and a Post Office was opened in July 1873, five years later, the voters agree to incorporate as a village under the name of Rogers Park. On April 29,1878 Rogers Park was incorporated as a village of Illinois governed by six trustees, by 1893, the population was 3500, the North Shore Electric Railroad expanded its service into the area, and the village of Rogers Park was annexed to Chicago. The Rogers Park Womens Club opened the first library in 1894, in that year, the Great Fire of Rogers Park destroyed the business district. By 1904 the population had grown to 7,500, the NorthWestern elevated line was extended from Wilson to Howard Street. St. Ignatius College moved to the lakefront in 1912, successive generations brought about vast cultural changes to the former village. By 1930 the population was 57,094 making Rogers Park one of Chicagos most densely populated areas. Chicagoans began to move to new planned communities in the suburbs by the 1930s, which ushered in the migration of German, English, Irish. With the devastation in Europe following World War II, many additional immigrants found their way to Chicago, a growing and vibrant Hispanic community has grown along Clark Street since 2000. For decades, most of the neighborhood has been within the 49th Ward of the city of Chicago, the ward covered much of Edgewater and went as far south as Hollywood in the 1960s, while the 50th Ward extended east to Ashland Avenue. But, because of redistricting, a part of Rogers Park is now within the 40th Ward, Rogers Park has a higher rate of residents with Masters, Professional, and Doctorate degrees than the state average

10.
Syracuse, New York
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Syracuse is a city in, and the county seat of, Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. It is the largest U. S. city with the name Syracuse, and is the fifth most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, and Yonkers. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170 and it is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over a million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a convention complex. Syracuse was named after the original Greek city Syracuse, a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily. The city has functioned as a crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is located at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90, Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, a major research university, as well as Le Moyne College, a nationally recognized liberal arts college. In 2010, Forbes rated Syracuse 4th in the top 10 places in the U. S. to raise a family, the Syracuse area was first seen by Europeans when French missionaries came to the area in the 1600s. Marie de Gannentaha, on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake, Jesuit missionaries visiting the Syracuse region in the mid 1600s reported salty brine springs around the southern end of Salt Lake, known today as Onondaga Lake. It is the north flowing brine from Tully that is the source of salt for the salty springs found along the shoreline of Onondaga lake, the rapid development of this industry in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the nicknaming of Syracuse as The Salt City. In 1847, the city was named after Syracuse, Sicily. In 1861, he developed the process for the manufacture of soda ash from brine wells dug in the southern end of Tully valley. The process was an improvement over the earlier Leblanc process, the Syracuse Solvay plant was the incubator for a large chemical industry complex owned by Allied Signal in Syracuse, the result of which made Onondaga Lake the most polluted in the nation. The salt industry declined after the Civil War, but a new manufacturing industry arose in its place, the Geneva Medical College was founded in 1834. It is now known as Upstate Medical University, one of four medical colleges in the State University of New York system. The first New York State Fair was held in Syracuse in 1841, world War II sparked significant industrial expansion in the area, specialty steel, fasteners, custom machining. After the war, two of the Big Three automobile manufacturers had major operations in the area, Syracuse was headquarters for Carrier Corporation, and Crouse-Hinds manufactured traffic signals in Syracuse. General Electric had its television manufacturing plant at Electronics Parkway in Syracuse

11.
Hoboken, New Jersey
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Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, Hoboken was first settled as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland colony in the 17th century. During the early 19th century the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens, first as a resort and it became a township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Hoboken is the location of the first recorded game of baseball and of the Stevens Institute of Technology, located on the Hudson Waterfront, the city was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey and home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from a blue collar town to one of upscale shops, the name Hoboken was chosen by Colonel John Stevens when he bought land, on a part of which the city still sits. Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw and Harsimus to the south, Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck, Hobock, Hobuk and Hoboocken. The origin of Hobokens name was not related to the Hoboken district of Antwerp, however, in the nineteenth century, a folk etymology had emerged linking the town of to the similarly-named Flemish town. Hoboken was originally an island, surrounded by the Hudson River on the east and it was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack, a phratry of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes. Soon after it part of the province of New Netherland. Three Lenape sold the land that was to become Hoboken for 80 fathoms of wampum,20 fathoms of cloth,12 kettles, six guns and these transactions, variously dated as July 12,1630 and November 22,1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area. Pauw failed to settle the land, and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633 and it was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer. In 1643, north of what would be known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house. In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, deteriorating relations with the Lenape, its isolation as an island, or relatively long distance from New Amsterdam may have discouraged more settlement. In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam with little or no resistance, english-speaking settlers interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained scarcely populated and agrarian. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Bayards property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey, in 1784, the land described as William Bayards farm at Hoebuck was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens for £18,360. In the early 19th century, Colonel John Stevens developed the waterfront as a resort for Manhattanites, on October 11,1811, Stevens ship the Juliana, began to operate as a ferry between Manhattan and Hoboken, making it the worlds first commercial steam ferry. In 1825, he designed and built a locomotive capable of hauling several passenger cars at his estate. Sybils Cave, a cave with a spring, was opened in 1832

12.
New Haven, Connecticut
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New Haven, in the U. S. state of Connecticut, is the principal municipality in Greater New Haven, which had a total population of 862,477 in 2010. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut. It is the second-largest city in Connecticut, with a population of 129,779 people as of the 2010 United States Census, according to a census of 1 July 2012, by the Census Bureau, the city had a population of 130,741. New Haven was founded in 1638 by English Puritans, and a year later eight streets were laid out in a four-by-four grid, the central common block is the New Haven Green, a 16-acre square, and the center of Downtown New Haven. The Green is now a National Historic Landmark and the Nine Square Plan is recognized by the American Planning Association as a National Planning Landmark, New Haven is the home of Yale University. The university is an part of the citys economy, being New Havens biggest taxpayer and employer. Health care, professional services, financial services, and retail trade also help to form a base for the city. The city served as co-capital of Connecticut from 1701 until 1873, New Haven has since billed itself as the Cultural Capital of Connecticut for its supply of established theaters, museums, and music venues. New Haven is also the birthplace of George W. Bush, New Haven had the first public tree planting program in America, producing a canopy of mature trees that gave New Haven the nickname The Elm City. The area was visited by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in 1614. Dutch traders set up a trading system of beaver pelts with the local inhabitants, but trade was sporadic. In 1637 a small party of Puritans reconnoitered the New Haven harbor area, the Quinnipiacs, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots, sold their land to the settlers in return for protection. By 1640, the theocratic government and nine-square grid plan were in place. However, the north of New Haven remained Quinnipiac until 1678. The settlement became the headquarters of the New Haven Colony, at the time, the New Haven Colony was separate from the Connecticut Colony, which had been established to the north centering on Hartford. Economic disaster struck the colony in 1646, however, when the town sent its first fully loaded ship of goods back to England. This ship never reached the Old World, and its disappearance stymied New Havens development in the face of the rising power of Boston. In 1660, founder John Davenports wishes were fulfilled, and Hopkins School was founded in New Haven with money from the estate of Edward Hopkins, in 1661, the judges who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England were pursued by Charles II

1852 Map of Boston area showing Cambridge and regional rail lines and highlighting the course of the Middlesex Canal. Cambridge is toward the bottom of the map and outlined in yellow, and should not be confused with the pink-outlined and partially cropped "West Cambridge", now Arlington.